I would really love to see the Wings try and steal Andrew Ladd from the Hawks. I love the way the guy plays and I think he would fit really well here. If we were able to sign him to an offer sheet, itd be awfully tough for the Hawks to match.

This is the Red Wings' Captain's chance to show the rest of the team what's important to him - personal riches beyond the wildest dreams of almost all professional hockey players, or the success of the team. He has collected somewhere in excess of 87 million dolars from the Red Wings. Today is Memorial Day and I'm reminded that great men have given everything they had for the good of people they never met - demanding $7 million dollars as a forty-year-old to play a child's game after he's made as much bank as he has off the team seem like a bit more of a dick move than it otherwise would. At the end of the day Lids' job is to be an entertainer, and entertainers should be fairly compensated....but there is more to life than just taking as much as you can get.

What's it gonna be, Lids - a major discount, a real shot at a Cup and they knowledge amongst those you Captain that you gave money away for a chance to make this team work, or a few extra inches of money to put on the pile next to the rest of it?

We didn't exactly "suck" last season. The first half was rough because at one point we had half of our regular lineup out with injuries, and didn't have Franzen, who was on fire, unitl February, as someone pointed out. The Wings had one of the best records in the league after the Olympic break, and surpise! They had everyone back by then!

Yes, we lost in the second round but all but one of those games were by one goal, and I still maintain the craptastic officiating had something to do with the losses (not blaming the refs, just saying that they were a factor - the Wings definitely didn't play up to par at times against the Sharks).

If we didn't have all those injuries during the first half of the season, and if we didn't have to play so dang hard to make up ground just to get to the playoffs, I think we'd be in the Cup Final instead of Chicago. I really do. The Wings could beat either of the teams in the Final.

Lidstrom showed this season that he is slowing down, but just a bit. He is still the best defenceman in the NHL and it's my opinion that if they want to contend for the Cup next year, the Wings need Lids back.

This is the Red Wings' Captain's chance to show the rest of the team what's important to him - personal riches beyond the wildest dreams of almost all professional hockey players, or the success of the team. He has collected somewhere in excess of 87 million dolars from the Red Wings. Today is Memorial Day and I'm reminded that great men have given everything they had for the good of people they never met - demanding $7 million dollars as a forty-year-old to play a child's game after he's made as much bank as he has off the team seem like a bit more of a dick move than it otherwise would. At the end of the day Lids' job is to be an entertainer, and entertainers should be fairly compensated....but there is more to life than just taking as much as you can get.

What's it gonna be, Lids - a major discount, a real shot at a Cup and they knowledge amongst those you Captain that you gave money away for a chance to make this team work, or a few extra inches of money to put on the pile next to the rest of it?

Easy to play this note when you are not involved personally. Why should he take anything less than 6 million? I am not saying he won't, but to expect him to do it just like that is ignorant, stupid and selfish.

Easy to play this note when you are not involved personally. Why should he take anything less than 6 million? I am not saying he won't, but to expect him to do it just like that is ignorant, stupid and selfish.

At this point in their respective careers I would rather sign Duncan Keith, even if it were for one year only, than Lidstrom. Keith just signed a new contract for 5.5 mil. I think that should be the basis for Lidstrom's next contract.

At this point in their respective careers I would rather sign Duncan Keith, even if it were for one year only, than Lidstrom. Keith just signed a new contract for 5.5 mil. I think that should be the basis for Lidstrom's next contract.

Rafalski makes 6 million, how can you be mad if Lidstrom gets more? He MIGHT take a huge paycut, but some of the fans just expect him to do it by default, which is pretty stupid.

Rafalski makes 6 million, how can you be mad if Lidstrom gets more? He MIGHT take a huge paycut, but some of the fans just expect him to do it by default, which is pretty stupid.

At this point in his career Rafalski is overpaid. But just because there are some defensemen on this team and in this league who are overpaid doesn't have much bearing on determining how much Lidstrom is worth. What if Rafalski was making 15 million? Would that make it fair for Lidstrom to demand 15 million as well? What if Rafalski was signed for 1 million? Would it be fair of us to expect Lidstrom to sign for 1 million? No, we should expect him to sign for what he is worth. Based on the salaries of some of his peers around the league, I think that he is worth around 5-5.5 million.

While I agree that I want a bit more change than Hudler for Williams, getting rid of Lidstrom is not the answer.

Say he asks for 7 million, which you would not want. What possible additions could we make that would actually be an upgrade for that money? If Lidstrom's gone, while that might mean change, it would be a change for the worse.

if lids retired, holland could then keep lebda and give him his much deserved pay day

who CAN the wings get if he leaves, while still being cap responsible?

volchenkov is reportedly gonna be thrown approx $5mil from the Caps. no way is he worth $5mil. i don't care how many shots he blocks. volchenkov = stuart, and lots of you guys for whatever reason want to hang stuart who was great last year with a horribly injured team.

realistically from the list in the link above, what good defenseman won't be re-signing with their current team?

anyone who thinks vancouver is letting mitchell walk isf****** nuts. and corvo's gonna rot in ottawa. tallinder's resigning with BUF. that doesn't leave much if lids retires. the wings would have to trade some prospects/picks to get a good solid top 4 dman.

with kronwall, stuart, rafalski, ericsson in the lineup, possibly lilja and kindl in the mix.on the way up is brendan smith, gleason fournier and adam almqvist. kolosov and janik are also potential players that have value. even logan pyett isn't too bad.

the wings could keep a good core of those dmen and trade a couple of them to get a top 4 guy. they also have some pretty good forwards coming up (callahan, tatar, raedeke, nyqvist, ferraro, coetzee, nestrasil, andersson, ritola...) tell me for one second that with all the guys i mentioned that the wings can't pry a pretty good dman from a team and still have a good prospects crop at the end of the day.

i'd personally package tatar, mcgrath and kolosov and a pick or 2 and see what comes in return.

At the time he signed the contract that expired just now his market value was 8.5 or something so 7.45 was 1 million hometown discount (he was a norris winning 65-80pts D).. his value now..49pts last season no norris nomination decent +/-... around 6million?.. so 1million hometown discount...=5Million.. done deal! kthxbye

This is the Red Wings' Captain's chance to show the rest of the team what's important to him - personal riches beyond the wildest dreams of almost all professional hockey players, or the success of the team. He has collected somewhere in excess of 87 million dolars from the Red Wings. Today is Memorial Day and I'm reminded that great men have given everything they had for the good of people they never met - demanding $7 million dollars as a forty-year-old to play a child's game after he's made as much bank as he has off the team seem like a bit more of a dick move than it otherwise would. At the end of the day Lids' job is to be an entertainer, and entertainers should be fairly compensated....but there is more to life than just taking as much as you can get.

What's it gonna be, Lids - a major discount, a real shot at a Cup and they knowledge amongst those you Captain that you gave money away for a chance to make this team work, or a few extra inches of money to put on the pile next to the rest of it?

I'm gonna be frank. This is just a hideous display of idiocy. Lidstrom has already foregone an arguable $15m-$25m in hometown discounts for the Wings over the past decade and a half and you sit there and post this.

Wrong. You want to say that Lidstrom is better than Pronger, be my guest. But to say that he is clearly better is just flat out wrong. Right now, I would take Pronger over Lidstrom on a one year deal for next season, in a heartbeat.

Keith is a great deal - can't argue with that. Still there are actually even more examples of worse players getting over $6.5m - Bouwmeester, Campbell.

Just because other players are overpaid, doesn't mean everyone should be overpaid. Alot of the salaries people are referencing are from contracts that were written before the full pinch of the cap was felt. Look at Rafalski.

I still get a kick out of people thinking that if Lidstrom doesn't take a discount for the betterment of the team, he is a greedy selfish jerk.

Sure, we've seen examples of people deferring money in the past. But it isn't the norm in business, nor should it be expected/assumed even though it's happened in Detroit a few times over a span of years and years.

Giving up money to stay at a job longer or being loyal is definitely and honorable thing to do, but to expect Lidstrom to just give up millions to be a team player is just silly, when he is still one of the best defensemen in the league. Thinking less of him if he doesn't do so is even more ridiculous since he's taken cuts here/there in the past as already previous stated.

Would it be nice if he took a huge pay cut for the team? Of course. Should we expect him to? Nope.

I still get a kick out of people thinking that if Lidstrom doesn't take a discount for the betterment of the team, he is a greedy selfish jerk.

Sure, we've seen examples of people deferring money in the past. But it isn't the norm in business, nor should it be expected/assumed even though it's happened in Detroit a few times over a span of years and years.

Giving up money to stay at a job longer or being loyal is definitely and honorable thing to do, but to expect Lidstrom to just give up millions to be a team player is just silly, when he is still one of the best defensemen in the league. Thinking less of him if he doesn't do so is even more ridiculous since he's taken cuts here/there in the past as already previous stated.

Would it be nice if he took a huge pay cut for the team? Of course. Should we expect him to? Nope.

Wrong. You want to say that Lidstrom is better than Pronger, be my guest. But to say that he is clearly better is just flat out wrong. Right now, I would take Pronger over Lidstrom on a one year deal for next season, in a heartbeat.

Just because other players are overpaid, doesn't mean everyone should be overpaid. Alot of the salaries people are referencing are from contracts that were written before the full pinch of the cap was felt. Look at Rafalski.

The market is still a little weird. It doesn't say you are right.

That's kinda like saying that despite the fact that billions of people will buy Coke at $1 a can every week, it's still overpriced. A product is worth what someone is willing to pay.

The market clearly shows that Nicklas Lidstrom is worth more than a cap hit of $6m despite the opinion of you and the other armchair GM's at LGW.

I still get a kick out of people thinking that if Lidstrom doesn't take a discount for the betterment of the team, he is a greedy selfish jerk.

Sure, we've seen examples of people deferring money in the past. But it isn't the norm in business, nor should it be expected/assumed even though it's happened in Detroit a few times over a span of years and years.

Giving up money to stay at a job longer or being loyal is definitely and honorable thing to do, but to expect Lidstrom to just give up millions to be a team player is just silly, when he is still one of the best defensemen in the league. Thinking less of him if he doesn't do so is even more ridiculous since he's taken cuts here/there in the past as already previous stated.

Would it be nice if he took a huge pay cut for the team? Of course. Should we expect him to? Nope.

Agreed. It's been my observation that players who took pay cuts or less money than they were worth don't get any special consideration from fans in Detroit. Lidstrom should get what he's worth - he's the damned Captain, for one thing. And as Jack said, still one of the best and smartest D men in the league.

I just hope he stays at least one more year. Believe it or not, some players bring more to the ice than their salary would indicate. They bring an intangible which translates to winning. Nick is one of those players.

That's kinda like saying that despite the fact that billions of people will buy Coke at $1 a can every week, it's still overpriced. A product is worth what someone is willing to pay.

The market clearly shows that Nicklas Lidstrom is worth more than a cap hit of $6m despite the opinion of you and the other armchair GM's at LGW.

Different people are willing to pay different amounts for the same item depending on their individual needs. If I were in the Mohave Desert dying of dehydration, I would be willing to pay much more than the market value of a Coke.

Our team doesn't need to host the Nicklas Lidstrom 2010-2011 farewell tour, they need to win the Stanley Cup. Pretty much everyone agrees that icing the same team as this year won't cut it, so we simply cannot afford to pay him as much as some other GMs would be willing to. Having the opportunity to close out ones career with the only team you've ever played for AND having a significant shot at winning the Stanley Cup is pretty rare, and if that is something that is important to Nick, he needs to be willing to make a sacrifice in order to make it happen. Are there other teams willing to pay him 7+ million dollars next year? Without a doubt. I don't think that Detroit should be one of them though.

I still get a kick out of people thinking that if Lidstrom doesn't take a discount for the betterment of the team, he is a greedy selfish jerk.

Sure, we've seen examples of people deferring money in the past. But it isn't the norm in business, nor should it be expected/assumed even though it's happened in Detroit a few times over a span of years and years.

Giving up money to stay at a job longer or being loyal is definitely and honorable thing to do, but to expect Lidstrom to just give up millions to be a team player is just silly, when he is still one of the best defensemen in the league. Thinking less of him if he doesn't do so is even more ridiculous since he's taken cuts here/there in the past as already previous stated.

Would it be nice if he took a huge pay cut for the team? Of course. Should we expect him to? Nope.

I haven't seen one person call him a selfish, greedy jerk. Stop trying to stir the pot. Everyone that is expecting Lidstrom to sign for substantially less are basing it off rumors that he would come back if he thought the team could win a Cup. Which implies that he wants to win another Cup. If that is true, then taking a 6-7+ contract won't help the cause.

Stop trying to turn this into an anti-Lidstrom thing for your own amusement. Just because some of us would be disappointed in him a little doesn't mean anyone thinks he is a selfish, greedy jerk.

Because we only made it to the 2nd round and lost four 1-goal games to be eliminated, it's easy to see that this team is FAR, FAR away from having a chance at contending for the cup.

hahahaha

You're nuts. Nobody that knows anything thinks that we are not at least a contendor for the Cup. If Howard doesn't let in that soft goal at the end of game 3, we go back to San Jose tied 2-2. Far, Far away? What were you watching?